1 John 3:23-4:6 - Testing the Spirits

Welcome to the Well Community Church. I am just so glad you’re hanging out here with us. If we have not met yet, my name is Brad, and I get the privilege of handling the word of God with us here today. If you have your Bible, we’re going to be in 1 John chapter three and a little bit of chapter four. Of course, welcome to those in person and those joining us via video. I want to give a special welcome to one of our campuses—the Fig Garden campus, where the “Rowdies” are hanging out here tonight in the PMs. I’m just so thankful that you’re all here.

The Relational Reality of Abiding

Last week, if you were with us, we did a long and laborious overview of pneumatology through John’s eyes. What we tried to do was understand what’s happening behind the scenes as John is writing. He’s using words that have potent theological meanings, and if we don’t unpack them, we might miss what he’s talking about. The word pneuma is translated into our English Bibles as breath, wind, or spirit. So, the study of pneumatology is really the study of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

In the Gospel of John, as Jesus is speaking of His departure, He says that He will ask the Father to give us another helper who will be with us forever—the Spirit of Truth.

John 14:16-17 (NASB)

’I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; [that is] the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, [but] you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

Now, they didn’t understand in the moment what Jesus was forecasting. Jesus goes to the cross, rises, and ascends, and then in Acts chapter two, the Spirit of God is poured out upon the early church. They are filled with the Holy Spirit and begin to live empowered by the Spirit of truth who is not simply with them, but is also in them. Paul would later say that in Christ, after listening to the message of truth and believing, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise as a pledge of our inheritance.

Ephesians 1:13 (NASB)

In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation– having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,

He says something similar in his letter to the Corinthians, noting that God has anointed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.

2 Corinthians 1:21-22 (NASB)

Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave [us] the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.

There is a pneumatological reality to our faith—a relational reality of the presence of God with us. Practically, this means you don’t have to pray, “God, be with me today.” If you’ve embraced the gospel, He’s here. You don’t have to say, “God, be with us today as we gather,” because He’s already here and doesn’t need our permission to be present.

But we are having to learn how to abide. In John 15, Jesus says that a branch cannot bear fruit unless it abides in the vine. He is the vine; we are the branches. Apart from Him, we can do nothing.

John 15:4-5 (NASB)

’Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither [can] you unless you abide in Me. ’I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

The real task of the Christian life is not necessarily being moral, or being better, or stopping certain behaviors. The real challenge is learning how to open up to the abiding presence of the Spirit of God who is in you. As we learn to abide in the Spirit—a word John uses 24 times in this letter—our life is changed by that abiding. If my life doesn’t look changed, it begs the question: what am I really abiding in?

1 John 3:24 (NASB)

The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

Keeping the commandments is not because you’re a “better” Christian; it’s because you’re learning how to abide. We know He abides in us by the Spirit He has given us. But how do you know it’s Him? How do we know that what we think is the Spirit of God is actually the Spirit of God?

Testing the Spirits

John gets into this in chapter four. He tells us not to believe every spirit, but to test them to see if they are from God.

1 John 4:1 (NASB)

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Notice he uses a lowercase “s” for spirit here, as distinct from the capital “S” Spirit in the previous verse. John is setting up a contrast. There is the Spirit of God, but there is another spirit at work in those who have yet to embrace the gospel. We need to test these spirits because not every desire is godly, not every spiritual influence is of Him, and not every compulsion is the Holy Spirit.

To understand this, we have to look at “hamartiology,” the study of the doctrine of sin. If we go back to Genesis 3, we see the first picture of humanity falling. Adam and Eve chose to live on their own, plunging humanity into sin. As Romans 5:12 suggests, through one man sin entered the world, and death spread to all.

Romans 5:12 (NASB)

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned–

Much like you might inherit high blood pressure or male pattern baldness from your parents, we have inherited things from Adam and Eve. We inherited death, corruption, shame, and autonomy—the innate desire to do life on our own without God. We are born without the Spirit of God. Now, some of you are raising little angels, and your little angel is amazing—but your little angel needs Jesus. Until they embrace Christ, they will reflect that lowercase “s” spirit.

Apart from God, we are driven by the flesh. Paul describes this in Romans 1, explaining how humanity exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped the creature rather than the Creator.

Romans 1:21-25 (NASB)

For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Apart from the Spirit of God, we are capable of all kinds of “awful.” We are driven by a spirit that has no thought of God. Jude describes people who are worldly-minded and “devoid of the spirit.”

Jude 1:18-19 (NASB)

that they were saying to you, ‘In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.’ These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit.

We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God.

1 Corinthians 2:12 (NASB)

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,

Ephesians 2 calls this lowercase spirit the “prince of the power of the air,” the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

Ephesians 2:1-2 (NASB)

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against these spiritual forces of wickedness.

Ephesians 6:12 (NASB)

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual [forces] of wickedness in the heavenly [places].

Now, don’t mishear me: I am not saying that if you haven’t embraced the gospel, you are possessed by Satan. What I am saying is that if you don’t have Him, you have a spirit influenced by the world and the flesh. Who is calling the shots on earth after Genesis 3? While we wait for Jesus to return and establish His throne, we are in the playground of the enemy.

When Satan tempted Jesus in Matthew 4, he showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and said, “I will give these to you if you worship me.” Jesus didn’t correct him by saying they weren’t his to give. In this “in-between” time, Satan is the father of lies.

John 8:44 (NASB)

’You are of [your] father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own [nature], for he is a liar and the father of lies.

This is why John says many false prophets have gone out. These are people who, in the name of Jesus, are teaching things driven by the lowercase “s” spirit.

The Cultural Context of False Teaching

Think about the religious context John was in. He was writing from Ephesus, a place full of Greco-Roman deities. There were temples to the Emperor, Aphrodite, and Artemis. In Acts 19, there was a riot because a silversmith named Demetrius was losing business—people were embracing the gospel and were no longer ordering his silver Artemis action figures on Etsy!

But John is also writing to the church. He is warning them about Gnosticism—the belief that the spiritual and physical were totally separate, meaning you could “worship Jesus” while living in a brothel and think it was fine. There were people diminishing the person and work of Christ, claiming He wasn’t really God or wasn’t really man.

John gives us the litmus test: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

1 John 4:2-3 (NASB)

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the [spirit] of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

One of the marks of the real Holy Spirit is the exaltation of Jesus. The Spirit of God reminds us of what Jesus said, testifies of Him, and glorifies Him.

John 14:26 (NASB)

’But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

John 15:26 (NASB)

’When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, [that is] the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me,

John 16:13-14 (NASB)

’But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. ’He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose [it] to you.

If you hear anything online—on TikTok, on a podcast—that diminishes the work of Christ, discounts His holiness, or removes the need for the cross, that is the spirit of the Antichrist. Paul was so concerned about this in Galatians that he said even if an angel from heaven preached a contrary gospel, they should be accursed.

Galatians 1:8 (NASB)

But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!

We see this today in what some call “progressive Christianity.” They say, “I know the Bible says men are men and women are women, but we’re more nuanced now.” They suggest that because God is love, He wouldn’t judge you for following your heart, even if it contradicts the clear teaching of Jesus and Paul on marriage. We have churches that suggest the Old Testament doesn’t matter anymore. But if you can’t take the Old Testament literally, you can’t take Jesus literally, because He quoted it constantly!

These teachers are often very articulate and popular, and our kids love it. This is why we must be diligent. Remember, John said some people went out from the church because they were never really of the church.

1 John 2:19 (NASB)

They went out from us, but they were not [really] of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but [they went out], so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.

The Three-Fold Test of Truth

How can we tell the difference between the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error? There are three things to think through.

First, it must be in keeping with God’s Word. The Holy Spirit inspired the Bible. It will not contradict itself. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching.

2 Timothy 3:16 (NASB)

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;

Men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. This is no ordinary book; it is the very word of God.

2 Peter 1:20-21 (NASB)

But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is [a matter] of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

We need to be like the Bereans in Acts 17, examining the Scriptures to see if what we are hearing is true. We must contend for the faith once delivered to the saints.

Jude 1:3 (NASB)

Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.

In non-essential issues, let’s be progressive. Thank you for not driving a horse-drawn carriage to church! But in the areas of who God is, who we are, and what morality is, we go back to the text.

Second, it must be confirmed by God’s Spirit. On the road to Emmaus, the disciples said their hearts burned within them as Jesus spoke. When you hear good Bible teaching, your heart leaps. But when you hear error, it’s like an off-note in a song. You just know something doesn’t sound right.

Third, it must be affirmed by God’s people. If you find a new interpretation of a text that nobody in the history of Christianity has ever seen before, there is a small chance you are a genius and a very large chance you are wrong. This is why the local church is so important. We have a community to say, “What say you, brothers and sisters?”

In Acts 15, the early church leaders said, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” There is safety in plurality. This is why we have elders and why we have multiple teaching pastors who give each other feedback. We don’t want to be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.

Ephesians 4:11-15 (NASB)

And He gave some [as] apostles, and some [as] prophets, and some [as] evangelists, and some [as] pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all [aspects] into Him who is the head, [even] Christ,

I want to tell you what a delight it is to be a part of this church. You all are “spiritual masochists” in the best way—you want hard things! You don’t want your ears tickled. If I tried to give you “Three ways to a happy life” where every point started with the letter P, you would throw up and leave! Paul challenged us to preach the word in season and out of season, because a time is coming when people will only want teachers who suit their own desires.

2 Timothy 4:2-4 (NASB)

preach the word; be ready in season [and] out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but [wanting] to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

Greater is He

You, little children, are from God. And you have overcome the false teachers.

1 John 4:4 (NASB)

You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

Greater is He who is in you—the Spirit of Truth and Holiness—than he who is in the world. Do not be surprised if you stand for the Word of God and the culture looks at you like you have three heads. We shouldn’t add offense to the gospel, but the gospel itself is already offensive to a world in darkness.

1 John 4:5 (NASB)

They are from the world; therefore they speak [as] from the world, and the world listens to them.

We are from God. Those who know God listen to the apostolic truth.

1 John 4:6 (NASB)

We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Do not believe a word I say without double-checking it in the Bible. I am not infallible, but the Scripture is. As we move forward, this need to test the spirits will only become more critical. There are things happening in our community right now that bear the name of Jesus but look more like apostasy than Christianity. We must be those who say, “This is what God’s Word says.”

Let’s pray.

God, we thank You that we have a Bible, a Spirit, and a community of faith by which we can test the spirits. Thank You for this journey we are on together. Help us to be discerning and wise in a culture where so many things are not from You. Help us to know why, and give us the discernment to determine what is right. In Jesus’ name, Amen.